August 20, 2014

So.... this week... happened. Things are starting to be very blurry as to when they happened. The days are so close together, they're essentially the same thing. We had more TRC this week. It's really hard talking to those people who know the language. At least they are patient with us, because we are really not that good. Oh! Here's something fun. Äldste Smith finished reading the Swedish-English dictionary. I was impressed, but not even close to being willing to try it myself. We really didn't do much noteworthy things this week. I'm sorry. We sat in classes and just studied. A lot of us are feeling like it's crunch time, we leave for Sweden in a mere eleven days. We feel like we don't really know the language. It's fun though. I feel like I'm already better at expressing myself in Swedish than I ever was in Spanish, and I studied that for four years.

WAIT! WEIGHT! I have to tell the outcome of our week of weight loss (It's a game, by the way. The elders around here call it the Biggest Loser). So, before I came to the MTC, I weighed about 175 lbs. At the weigh in last Saturday, I weighed 169. On this Saturday, I weighed 163. I lost six pounds in one week, and twelve pounds overall. Usually people gain a bunch of weight here, but apparently, I just can't keep any of it. Also, I won. Smith only lost five pounds over the week of our competition. He ate too many brownies. But now that game is over…

On Sunday, we had Jenny Oaks Baker come to talk to us, so that was fun. She didn't really do as much talking as she did playing her violin. She's really good. Kind of really accomplished at playing, apparently. For Tuesday devotional, the General Young Women's President came to talk to us, Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson. She and her husband have served three missions in the Sweden mission, including one stint as the Stockholm Temple President and Matron. So we got a shout out in front of all of every 2000 missionaries attending to devotional.

Also, there was this time this week where we were supposed to be productive and use the computers to help with our language, so we went on Family Search. Both Smith and I thought back and realized that we both had Allred lines, so we wanted to see if any of us were related to Syster Allred. Turns out, Smith and I are related through a guy named Isaac Allred. And here's the fun thing. That is the same common ancestor that we BOTH have with Syster Allred. So now we are all family. On another note, Äldste Hemmingsen and I are related through a guy named Johannes Heiner. So more connections. They're all not even that far back, so we think it's hilarious. I'm sure there are more; those are just the only ones we have checked.

We taught a few lessons this week. We had our best lesson that we ever taught with our brand new investigator. We taught him that if he wanted a strong relationship with God (and he did), he had to pray. You can't get to know someone by just thinking about them. We have to talk to God if we want to know him. So that was fun, we felt the spirit really strong. We taught him another time about the Restoration. It went well. We are having a really great time teaching this “guy”. Every time we talk we can just feel the Holy Spirit so strongly.

Anyway, I'm off to get a famous super short MTC haircut, wish me luck. I'm getting it now so it won't look too bad by the time I get to Sweden. Jag hopar att alla ni ha en underbar dag idag!  Äldste Heiner 

Here I am, right now.  Pre-hair cut.  In my mission shirt.
Oh, I bought this shirt with Sweden and the flag on it.

This is my planner for one day.
Could be any day, really.  They are all so much alike.